The
other day I looked up a web site that I often visit, and curiosity led me
through a succession of links to a fifty minute slot on You Tube. It was of a
lecture given by the journalist Robert Mickens to the City Club in
Cleveland
,
Ohio
. I watched the
first five minutes and got hooked.
The
date of Mickens’ talk was November, 2012, a full three months before the
resignation in February of the following year of Benedict XVI. His analysis of
the Church, and in particular of the
Vatican
, was indeed fascinating. When towards the end of Questions
he was asked about the next Pope… he went for a Brazilian! Well, as things
turned out he was near enough. See what you think, it is worth an hour of your
time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyPUzfJ8X50#t=1552
There
are many occasions when we say something “happened by chance”, when we find
ourselves meeting up with someone we haven’t seen for years, or find a
friendship renewed quite unexpectedly.
Two
days ago I received an e-mail from
Germany
, from the daughter of a headteacher whom I met through a
school exchange back in the 90s. I last contacted him five years ago but had
heard nothing since. His daughter, Inka, wrote to say that she had just found my
email and that her father, Gunther, was now seriously ill with dementia. Not a
good story, but the opportunity for me to write to him again, now knowing that
my message will get through.
In
so many ways, the chance of being there gives opportunity for our Christian
response, the occasion when we can show by our actions that faith has a purpose
and that the joy of the Gospel can be fulfilled in a few moments of company, not
through proselytizing, but just by being there.
The
image of a sea-worn beam of wood at the head of this posting is all that remains
of a beach head jetty after years of weathering by storm and tide. It has served
a purpose and now, all that is left of a once proud and purposeful structure, is
this splintered stub. In many ways, analogous with our lives which, after many
active years, are often so weathered and generally beaten-up that they are
outwardly unrecognisable.
Some through dogged perseverance, pursue their
chosen path to the end, giving, sharing, consoling with each passing year. The
day on which I am writing this posting happens to be the first anniversary of
the death of the Irish Poet, Seamus Heaney, whose last words to his wife Marie,
minutes before he died were,
"Noli
timere" – Don’t be afraid. You
can find a posting of mine about Heaney on
the Pray Tell website, dated August 30th.
In
his final interview, the text of which was released just after his death,
Cardinal Carlo Martini said this:
“The
Church is two hundred years behind. Why is it not being stirred? Are we afraid?
afraid, instead of courageous? Faith is the Church’s foundation–faith,
confidence, courage. I’m old and ill and depend on the help of others. The
good people around me enable me to experience love. This love is stronger than
the feeling of discouragement that I sometimes feel in looking at the Church in
Europe
. Only love conquers
weariness. God is Love.
I
have a question for you: “What can you do for the Church?”
Again,
he centres his comment of our being afraid, fearful, when as Christians we
should be exactly the opposite.
Mickens
brings out forcefully the fear within
Vatican
circles that the status quo is safer
than a courageous voyage and that this has kept the Church centred on structures
rather than on Christ.
Maybe
now we are fortunate to be offered the chance to live in a changing Church that
seeks faith in its founder rather than in the many shades of clericalism that
have dominated us in so many ways over recent years.
Yes,
ask that question “What can I do for the Church?” and always do so with
those other words in mind, Noli timere.
END
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